Answering the Call
by Shad0cat
Summary: My ongoing Uru fanfiction. Updated as I play.
1. Days 1&2

Disclaimer:I do not own Myst, Riven,Exile, Uru, or any other random thing I might make reference to in the following story. Those games are owned by , Rand and Robyn Miller , Cyan Worlds, Presto Studeos,Ubi Soft, and a whole slew of other ppl who's names I don't know. No money is being made from this story. It is entertainment only. Please send all questions, comments, praises, and dead Squee to shad0cat@yahoo.com.  
  
*Spoiler Warning* The following story you are about to read is a journal of my experiences in the game URU. It does contain things straight from the game told through my own interpretations(and artistic liberties) as well as making references to events and places from the first 3 games and the novels. I am writing this as I play Uru for the first time so the character will not be all knowing. Eventually though it will include puzzle solutions. I mostly reccomend this story to players who have already beaten all 4 games. If you've already beat it all, or you just don't care...enjoy ^_^.  
  
-Day 1- After travelling for miles on end our horses pulled to a halt. My little Grey mare snorted emptying her nose of the dry dusty desert air. Her name was Bint Baariq, it means "daughter of brightness." It could have been given to her for the kindness or intellegence in her eyes or even for the way the suns rays danced apon her nearly white coat, either way it suited.  
  
This was my stop. I handed Baariq's reins back to the leader of our group. I had been very fortunate to get a ride out so far out here with one of the local Arabian horse clubs who did a small buisness taking tourists on daily desert rides. I had arranged for them to meet me later in the evening at the same location during their sunset run. I just hoped I'd find what I'd come for before their return.  
  
Either way it would not had been for nothing. Worse case scenario I'd already lived the dream of crossing the desert on an Arabian horse. Although, that was not what had brought me to this little peice of BF nowhere. Nor had it been a rift in reality like the first time. This time it was most likely a rift in my sanity that was to blame.  
  
All these months since I parted ways with Atrus after Releeshahn had nearly met it's end at the hands of a not so madman by the name of Saaveedro were taking their toll. I'm not quite sure how I ended up home again after that little adventure. All I know is that I went to sleep in Tomahna the night I returned from Narayan and woke up in my own backyard in Florida. I was supposed to have gone with Atrus the next morning to finally see Releeshahn, but it was not to be. I wonder sometimes if Atrus thought I deserted him. I wonder if maybe he had been the one to send me home. Perhaps like the starfissure that had originally brought us together reality had opened up once again and I'd simply fallen in. In any way that matters. I miss Atrus, Catherine, and the rest of the D'ni. With everything we'd gone through "together" they'd become some of my closest friends.  
  
I adore the D'ni, or at least the few I'd had the honor of meeting. They are an entire race of people with the curioscity of eight year olds and way too much time on their hands which they've devoted to exploration, learning, and just trying to make themselves better people for the greatness of D'ni.  
  
I've often wished,as have many or most of the fans out there to have been able to have been part of the D'ni Civilazation in it's height. That obviousely not possible, I'd be willing to settle for being able to see it at all. It's true I did get to see one chamber of it breifly when I first met Atrus,but I never had the chance to leave that room.  
  
It was for this reason that I traveled here. The strange dreams that haunt my sleep and the strange calling that has grabbed hold of my heart. D'ni is a place, it exists, or at least at one time existed. It was real so therefore given enough effort it could be found.  
  
In front of me, beyond the barb wire fence is an old volcano. No, it's THE old volcano. There was no mistaking. It was just as I'd imagined it... just as my dreams had shown me...just as I'd sculpted it in my mashed potatoes! I had some difficulty locating this place. I had originally believed from the descriptions found in the novels that the Cleft was to be found in some Arabic nation in the middle east. After doing an internet search on the nearest known city, the city of Tadjinar it yeilded some rather interesting results. Tadjinar as it turns out was an ancient city in New Mexico. It was a very rare fluke not often mentioned in American History. The city of Tadjinar it turns out was founded in the New Mexico area nearly 500 years ago after the great great great great...ect. grandsons of the "We Three Kings Of Orient Are" conned a passing caravan of Arabic traders and their camels into smoking 10 whole crates of their now world famous "Rubber Cigars." The rest as they say is history.  
  
I had to get moving, now it was time.  
  
I hopped the barbwire fence and turned to read the large sign that only moments ago I could only see the backside of. A large "No Trespassing" sign,in two languages old and sandblasted in appearance, marked the property from which I had just come. I'd unwittingly trespassed and tomorrow I'd probably do it again. I wondered who had bothered to put this sign up and what they felt they were defending with it. Maybe they were concerned that someone was going to sneak over and steal their sand. That had to be it, I'd traveled that direction for miles and there had been nothing else out there but sand and sky.  
  
There was something strange attatched to the back of the sign. It was a sort of cloth, red in color, with a styalized hand that spiraled on the palm. I reached out to pick it up, but when I touched it and part of the spiral glowed. I had no idea what this meant save that somewhere in the universe someone currently didn't know where their towel was.  
  
I turned once more in the direction of the volcano and resumed my trek. It was taking me far longer to reach my destination than I had originally guessed. Most likely my guess had been undermined by the massive size of the cone making it appear much closer than it actually was.  
  
This desert in New Mexico is big. No spaghettie western no matter how long even comes close to the actuality. Even had I layed out the best of relief maps and calculated the mileage beforehand the number I would get could not possibly kick me in the butt the way the reality of it did just then.  
  
The only thing out here bigger than the desert is the sky. Now please withhold the "thank you captain obviouse"s, of course everyone knows the sky is big. However, nothing pronounces this fact like having only flat land for miles to cut into it's azure expanse.  
  
Only the sounds of the wind and the insects break the feeling of emptyness and prove beyond the visual veil that this place is actually very much alive. I remember once while I was in school,way back in the day, one of our teachers telling us how to find the temperature by counting the number of insect chirps per minute and then dividing them by.....well I forget, but even if I could remember, I didn't need a bug to tell me that Mr. "No Trespass" and/or his family, if he had one, had most likely packed their bags long ago and moved to Hell just to get out of this awful heat.  
  
As intense as it was I didn't let it bother me too much. I'd spent far to long living in a subtropical climate. This was dry heat. Everyone knows that it's the humidity that will kill you. Humidity, cholesterol, and careers in retail... Thankfully none of the above were to be found in this place.  
  
As I approched the volcano I saw my first sign of life since I'd parted ways with my my guides. What I origionally thought was some sort of truck turned out to be a mobile home. What was a trailer doing out here all by iteself looking like it had been picked up by a passing tornado tossed over the rainbow and dumped in the middle of nowhere? Was it occupied? Whatever it's purpose it's presence meant one thing. Someone else knew about this place.  
  
This of course was not so much a revelation as it was a something I'd not anticipated. Of course other people knew about this place. Two men by the names of Rand and Robyn Miller and their team at Cyan Worlds had cranked out three novels and three games surrounding the stories of the D'ni. There was no mistaking their accuracy, They even knew about the Muslim traders and their camels. They must have known Atrus himself. They must have spent quite alot of time in the company of the D'ni. Maybe they were D'ni themselves. They were probably in Releeshahn somewhen playing disc golf even as I write this. It was possible. I saw Rand once in an interview that came with one of the games. He looks suspiciously like Atrus. I'm glad that he(or whoever) chose to cast himself for the part he was brilliant.  
  
As I approached the trailer, even before I could visually confirm wether or not the trailer was occupied I could hear the music. It had not occured to me that in a place as far out as this that there would be either electricity or radio waves. Even had I expended the braincells to think on the matter I would have expected to be hearing more country music. So many dogs, trucks, and wives had gone missing since South Western flight 515 nontstop to destiny landed in New Mexico that I knew the cops would be kept so busy they'd never bust me on the tresspassing thing. I didn't recognize the song playing now, but it sounded more like pop rock.  
  
I arrived at the trailer where I met a slightly overweight and equally as slightly bald gentleman who was crashed out under the overhang in an easychair with his feet propped up reading a book and making the most of the little patch of shade that his porch afforded him. He said his name was Zami or Zanni or Zenny or Zummy(or was that a Gummybear) or zumething. I wish I wasn't so horrible with names.  
  
He told me not to worry that I had been called here just like all the others. I wondered how many others knew or had suspected that this was a real place. I was told to head for the tree and that she'd left a message for me in the cleft and that I should follow her. I was unsure about who this "she" was at the time but now I suspect that it's Atrus' daughter Yeesha due to a note I found in the cleft later the same day. Mr Z., as I shall have to call him untill I remember his real name, told me that he'd be there if I needed help. I thanked him then headed for the Cleft.  
  
Here I was at THE Cleft at the base of THE old volcano. I would have tried to pinch myself except that as clumsy as I am I never come through anything without more bruises than I need without creating them on purpose. I was here at the Cleft where Atrus himself had grown up , where Anna had taught him that one very important question,no not "where are my car keys," the other important question. The all important "what do you see?" question. The whole place was humming with it's "big picture"vibe.  
  
What I saw now was a crack with a big tree growing out of the top of it. A "crack in the ground", that was what Ghen had called it. He called it a crack in the ground because that was what it was....Ok I spent too long reading the Stoneship journal during my time on Myst.- I called them the rocks because that is what they were- and Ghen called it a crack in the ground because that is what it was and because he'd spent too much time smoking frogs and reading Moby Dick and was too trashed to come up with anything better.  
  
I decended the ladder on the right front end of the Cleft and looked around. I was so busy looking around taking in all there was to see and compairing mental notes with what I'd read in the novels that I compleately missed the gaping hole in the rotting boards of the rope bridge I'd chosen to cross and I landed butt first at the bottom in a clump of Anna's famed favorite blue star shaped flowers. Enter the bruises. I plucked one of the flowers from a clump near my hand and put it in my hair. I know nothing of plants but they smelled as though they might be either another variety of Jasmine or related to one. Of course, my sense of smell isn't that keen so I could be compleately wrong on all counts. They were so beautiful it was no wonder that she loved them. I could have made a chain of them but I felt somehow that my rear end had done enough damage for one day and that I should leave the rest of them undisturbed.  
  
I got up and brushed myself off. If the blue flowers were here then the pool where Atrus' mother was buried must be as well. I found it to my left. That famous pool where Ghen's boots had muddied the water. It had been part of some prophecy I now only half remember.  
  
At the far end of the pool were the roots of the tree that marked the Cleft from above. There was a circle on it like on the hand towel thing. I touched it, but nothing happened.  
  
I turned from the tree and headed along the pool to the other end of the hole I'd fallen into. There had been no means of getting out by it's waters and I needed to get back to where I started. There was a broken rope bridge at the far end so tempting fate I reached up and climbed the rotting boards dreading as I did so that a) the boards would snap and b) I'd have to spend hours when I got home getting the dirt that clung to them out from under my fingernails. At the top I found two bedrooms. The one on the right had a peice of paper lying on it. Was this perhaps my message from "her?"  
  
I recognized the handwriting as soon as I saw it. I did not have to look at the signature to know it would be signed "Atrus" at the bottom. It was a message to his daughter Yeesha. This is how it read.....  
Our dearest Yeesha,  
  
Last night your mother had a dream...  
We know that some futures are not cast by the  
writer or the maker, but the dream tells that  
D'ni will grow again someday. New seekers of  
D'ni will flow in from the desert feeling called to  
something they do not understand. But the dream  
also tells of a desert bird with the power to weave  
this new D'nis future. We fear such power, it changes  
people.  
  
Yeesha our desert bird, your search seems to take  
you further and further from us. I hope that what you  
find will bring you closer  
  
-your father, Atrus  
  
A strange note for certain, especially from one who doesn't believe in prophesy, but there was something even more cryptic about the red inking around the border.  
  
-I will use them to bring me the least impossible-  
  
-what I have learned must be returned-  
  
-Now his....  
  
What was that word? Garden? Gardenia...The handwriting was rough. Even I with my bad handwriting was having trouble making this out. Even with my head turned sideways I wasn't getting it. Of course most people would just turn their papers instead of turning their heads but I gotta be different. Burden! The word was "burden"  
  
-Now his burden is mine-  
  
Why? Why was Atrus' burden now hers? Did he die? I knew in all likely hood that he probably had. Even though I'd seen him only months ago in Tomahna that age could have been anywhen. The sadness was no less real. I had no real proof that he was actually dead, and if he was he had to be in a better place. He was probably sitting alongside the Maker delegating responsability to random passers by while scrawling relentlessly in the masterbook of the age of "Hereafter" to make sure the fundimental composition of the clouds kept them as fluffy as possible.  
  
I found another handtowel in the room next door. When I touched this one even more of the spiral lit up. Perhaps I am to keep going untill it gives me the entire hand. Maybe by that time I'll know about the one at the base of the tree.  
  
I had to do some creative jumping but I found it! Atrus' old lab. There was a diagram on the wall of a battery he'd designed and the rest of the room, though it looked slightly ransacked, was littered with traces of miscelaneous geological experiments. Here was proof, clutter always accompanies genius. There was an etching on the wall that I assumed went with this other machine that I found there. I matched the symbols correctly I think, but still it will not turn on. It probably needs power. Maybe the symbol on the wall is in the correct order but turned to some degree. Maybe the symbol goes to another similar machine and I'll find the correct sequence for this one elsewhere in the Cleft. It just seems as though it would be far too easy for the answer to be right there in the same room as the question.  
  
Behind Atrus' lab is the kitchen. There's not much in here. Atrus lead a truly tough life. He lived out here in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't even a refridgerator to raid. Looking out the window I could see the ladder where I'd come in. If I could have only gotten the door open I could cross over to where I started. There's a blue button by the door, as by all the other doors,but it doesn't work. More support for the "find a power source" theory.  
  
I headed back towards the center of the cleft leaving the kitchen and Atrus' lab behind me. As I attempted to cross the rope bridge I heard the sickening crack of wood combined with the voices of a thousand screaming blue flowers just before the really big thud where I hit the ground for the second time today. Two things went through my mind. The first was the fact that the only way back across that I'd managed to find was now destroyed and the second one was OW! I got up and looked around. I'd have to attempt to climb what was left of the bridge I just crashed. What if it broke again? Thankfully it didn't. In the end it's actually a more convenient way of getting back to the ladder than it was while it was still intact.  
  
-Day2-  
  
Today I brought my camera and decided to take things a little more easy. I got many great shots out and around the old volcano. On the far side there is a strange skeleton. I'm not sure what it used to be. If this was a game of "name that roadkill" I'd be losing. It's head shape and lack of arms suggest some type of Marine Mammal, but Shamu could not possibly have jumped this far. What would it be doing in the middle of the desert? It's huge, the size of an elephant easy, but the headshape and the teeth are all wrong. It must have been some type of dinosaur. The legs were probably sandblasted away or buried over time. I found another one of those handtowels attatched to it's skull. That makes three now I think.  
  
There was a strange pile of scrap metal further clockwise around the volcano. I got pictures. The only part intact is a cone shaped peice that reminds me very much of the telescope that stood over the starfissure in Riven. I'm sure that shape is all they have in common and all of my poking and prodding of this object has brought me no closer to discerning it's true purpose. Perhaps the cone shape is a common element in D'ni structures.  
  
I stopped by Mr Z's trailer to get his picture to add to my album. He must have misunderstood my intent because he just started spouting out hints for my task. Maybe he just can't hear over that loud music of his. He's still listening to the same track he was listening to when I met him yesterday. How much Peter Gabriel can one man take? I know if I return there too often that song will inevidably squeeze itself in amoung the Avril Lavign, Evanessence, Bare Naked Ladies, Michelle Branch, No Doubt, Outcast and all manner of other random songs that make up the never ending irrelevent soundtrack of my mind.  
  
I found another handtowel on the back of Mr Z's trailer. Up untill now only the palm had lit up, but this one gave me the finger. The pointer finger was giving off that wonderful blue glow alongside the swirling palm. I wonder how many more I have to find to light the whole hand. I took some more pictures around the opening of the Cleft starting with the cracktree. I got a few more shots close to the bridge but I suspect it will take most of tomorrow to really photograph the Cleft indepth. 


	2. Days 3&4

Disclaimer:I do not own Myst, Riven,Exile, Uru, or any other random thing I might make reference to in the following story. Those games are owned by , Rand and Robyn Miller , Cyan Worlds, Presto Studeos,Ubi Soft, and a whole slew of other ppl who's names I don't know. Please send all questions, comments, praises, and dead Squee to shad0cat@yahoo.com.  
  
*Spoiler Warning* The following story you are about to read is a journal of my experiences in the game URU. It does contain things straight from the game told through my own interpretations(and artistic liberties) as well as making references to events and places from the first 3 games and the novels. This is being written as I play so my character is not all knowing. Eventually it will include puzzle solutions. If you've already beat it all, or you just don't care...enjoy ^_^.  
  
*On another note: I love feedback, but if you're going to leave it don't leave solutions to puzzles. I do want to figure these things out on my own and it helps me write my character's thoughts more truthfully if people aren' t telling her what she needs to do.  
  
-Day 3-  
  
Today the angels spent most of the day bowling. From the sounds of the thunder and the lightning I could see and hear from where I'd perched myself in my hotel room window I'd have to say they were having a tournament. God being perfect and all must have been headed for yet another 300 game. The rest of them must have been doing pretty spiffy as well because noone was crying. Not a drop of rain fell to the sands.  
  
Me? I could have cried. Even though there was no rain, in storms like these there are always pretty tough winds to deal with. Now, we didn't have a full blown sandstorm on our hands, but as anyone who's been sunbathing on the beach when a storm has blown in knows, it doesn't take much above a breeze to sandblast the sunburn off of you. In essence, my trip to the Cleft today had to be cancelled.  
  
I didn't cry though. When one door closes there's always another one ready to open up behind you, smack you in the rear, and flatten you against the opposite wall. Today I devoted, instead, to putting together a small website where I could share this journal and my photographs I'd been taking. That way those before me and even those that come after me could share in my journey.  
  
It seemed a far more constructive course of action than lying on the bed and shooting spitwads at the ceiling fan. Plus it lacked the threat of losing an eye if the spitwad doesn't quite stick right. Of course nowadays I'm far too grown up for such behavior, but back in the day...  
  
I got my first roll of film back from developement today. It's been posted on the site as well. One hour photo is the best thing to happen to photography since color. Now anyone can see my pictures or read my story by going to   
  
Hopefully I'll be finished with that second roll soon so I can put those up when I have the time. I will say though I won't be praying for anymore days like this just to have the time.  
  
-Day 4-  
  
My Journal has only been up for one day and already I've heard back from some of the "others". One was kind enough to give me Zandi's name so I don't have to hurt his feelings by admitting to him that I'd forgotten it. Now I just have to find a way to commit it to memory. I know, the name game! Zandi Zandi bobandi bannana fanna fofandi.... I'd be willing to bet that Saavedro's brain would probably explode before he ever successfully played the name game. I also refuse to take responsablity for the drycleaning bill of anyone who is now at home attempting to do the name game with Saavedro.  
  
Another person suggested that the scrapmetal by the volcano was in fact the wreckage of the Riven telescope. I kinna thought New Mexico would be a rather nonsensical place to land but then again look where the Myst book landed and there was no sense in that either. Maybe that means that the skeleton by the volcano is just a really mangled Whark. They also asked if that was the Riven telescope where had the dagger gone? All I have are a few guesses based on absolutely nothing.  
  
The dagger could have landed on some lawn in front of some office building somewhere in New York. In my one visit to that city I'd discovered that most New Yorkers are entirely too busy and have seen too many stranger things just in the subway alone to be bothered by the sudden appearance of yet another metal abstract art sculpture on yet another lawn in front of yet another office building.  
  
Maybe the dagger landed on another planet entirely. There apon it's arrival it was greeted by a small band of purple porcupines, who having never seen such a large quill in all their lives took it immedately to be a sign from their goddes Quillandra. They then began bowing down and ritually sacrificing chocolate(which is the best way to appease any goddess) and doing the hokey pokey around it untill they figured out what it was all about.  
  
Or maybe it just got burried in the sand in one of those storms like we had yesterday.  
  
Just don't be surprised if you're standing in line at the supermarket with your one bag of cheesedoodles behind some old lady in a muu muu who's buying 3 cartloads of stuff for the picnic at her family reunion and you see an issue of the Weekly World News with the headline "Purple Porcupines With Really Big Knife Knock Over 7 Eleven in Roswell! Leader Demands Slurpees and PEZ!".  
  
I returned to the Cleft today. Everything was coated in an extra layer of sand. Just think, had this been in one of those Middle Eastern deserts with the rolling dunes, the whole place would have probably been buried in just a few years. I managed to finish photographing Atrus' lab today as well as the kitchen. For some reason I took special notice of the drawer on the floor under Atrus' desk. It wasn't so much the drawer itself, but the knife that was sitting in it. It was an ordinary butterknife, in and of itself it was nothing to write home about, but it made me remember *Them*.  
  
The Them in question, Sirrus and Achnar had quite a habit of storing knives and other sharp objects in any drawer available throughout Stoneship,Channelwood, and the Mechanical Fortress. Achnar's room in the Mechanical Fortress had by far been the worst. It was the perfect cover shot to the crisis pamphlet "So You're Going to Hell: A Handbasket Guide to Surviving the Things You'll Probably Just Wish Would Kill You." The Smell of the room was a mix of blood, sweat,grime,rusting metal, and something else only common to highway rest stops and outhouses in mid summer. There was blood all over the the black and white checkered floor, sharp objects hanging on every available hook, the decapitated heads of the noble creatures of Channelwood who more than did not deserve the fate they'd met frozen twisted in eternal pain, and a thin layer of greasy film that through my quest I'd find covered almost everything Achnar came in contact with. Fear,pain, hopelessness, and a certain type of chill reputed to be associated with most haunted locations were heavy in the air. It was more than I could take. I'd retreated to the hallway crying several times before I'd been in that room long enough to find the hidden room behind his throne.  
  
Finding that room itself had been a not so happy accident. You see, as I had mentioned before it was more than I could take. It was at that particular moment that my stomach told my brain that this was all it was going to take and in the interest of keeping a clean hallway to retreat to I had run back behind the throne. The discovery of the second chamber stopped me in mid heave and I pulled the sliding panel back counting what I guessed was going to be the number of Tetnis shots I was going to need when/if I ever got home again. Little did I know,but I should have guessed, it would be worse on the other side. I quickly averted my eyes from the blood soaked wooden chopping block with an ax stuck in it to begin my search for the blue page in a stack of unassuming wooden crates. Mind you I had no intention of releasing that madman even then, but I had to know what he knew in case he knew how I was going to get home.  
  
I slid back the lid to find a partially rotting head of another poor Channelwood creature, a few teeth missing, staring desperately back at me. That's when I finally lost it. I tossed my Frootloops all over the head inside the box. That didn't help the head look any better. It certainly didn't smell any better. I will say though that it was a bit more colorful. I ran back into the main room nearly banging my head and skidding in the muck on the floor on my way back out into the hallway. I didn't stop at the hall this time. I ran blindly through my tears which had at first only been silent sadness for what had become of the poor souls who had found this place their final destination, but now had become full blown hyperventalating bawling.  
  
I collapsed in the first place I found to sit down which happened to be the throne in Sirrus' room. Here was safe. I sat there with my back against the left armrest and my legs draped over the right and waited. I waited desperately to drive the images from my mind, waited for the tears to clear out of my eyes,for my breathing to slow, to wake up from what I knew had to be the longest running nightmare in the history of sleeping.  
  
Here was safe I'd reminded myself. When my eyes cleared I occupied my mind with the details of Sirrus' room. It was so much cleaner by comparison. I looked around at all his toys. The clock, the ship, the telescope, the spaceship, the light up crystal thingys and a windup nightengale like the one from that oriental fairytale. The toys gave the place a feeling of innocence in contrast to Achnar's room. This added to my feebly growing sense of security. They were all so finely crafted. He could get a fortune for this stuff on E-bay. Not that he really needed it from the looks of the place.  
  
Here was safe. After all, Sirrus was the goodguy wasn't he? Now what must be understood here is that I didn't know just then what I know now. In fact, in the great timeline of the existance of time my little "you are here" dot was sitting at about 300 seconds and closing on ground zero of just how wrong that assumption had been. At that time I had only been to one other age, Stoneship, and the only thing I'd gathered from my visit into his chambers was that he was a man with a taste for the finer things in life. That made sense to me. Even here on the wall was a tapestry that portrayed him as a king, so there was nothing odd about him having such wealth. I wondered about the other tapestry. He must have loved her, her portrait had been so carefully hung so that it could be adored very clearly from the position in which I'd flopped myself down.  
  
I had seen the knives in Sirrus' drawers on Stoneship. The knives in the drawers, the very trigger of this tangent, I had seen them and wondered. That was untill I'd been into Achnar's room and especially since I'd seen his room in the fortress. My conclusion then had been that they were clean, most likely unused ,and living anywhere in proximity to a madman like Achnar was cause enough for even me to want to keep a few knives in my drawers. It would be cause enough for one to become very adept at sleeping with not just one but both eyes open.  
  
I felt very sorry for Sirrus. How could a King like Sirrus stand to live down the hall from such madness. Surely he could hear the screaming from here. The three hundred remaining seconds of my delusion were up. The halls were metal, everything in this place echoed. There was no way he hadn't heard it. What had he done about it? He had all this power and he hadn't even gone down to Achnar's room. How do I know? Well untill I came tearing in here marking up the floor with the sludge from my size nines you could have eaten off of the floor . That sludge was part blood and blood stains. The bottoms of my own shoes had been permanantly stained a strange Cheeto orange color not unlike the residue left after one has taken a walk across a large patch of red Geogia clay. They made that annoying skrikking sound that shoes often make after one has stepped in spilled soda. Too bad for me I could never quite delude myself into thinking it was only soda. I went on to skrik across the remainder of the mechanical ages, two more ages after that,and the five islands of Riven before I got home and immediately burned them. If Sirrus had even stepped foot in Achnar's room there'd be stains on the tile. Aside from the ones I'd made there were none. Sirrus had let the madness happen. He was as horrible as his brother.  
  
Here wasn't safe anymore. I was locked in fear. To go forward was to face the death in the other room. To stay here was to face my own death, to become another of the many ghosts that I knew haunted this place. I'd suck it up and go forward even though that course of action might too have been in vain. I had no way of knowing back then if I'd even find another option apart from releasing Sirrus or Achnar. I had no way of knowing if either of them even knew how to send me home. Maybe there wasn't even a way. To whatever end I couldn't stay here. I had to know what they knew.  
  
In the end with my help Atrus made them pay for what they had done. It had to have been harder on Atrus to burn those trap books that my entire ordeal in the Mechanical Fortress had been on me. They had payed and perhaps were still paying depending on what one believes about the afterlife and judgement and such. Although, if Hell is anything like the retail world, and many would agree that it is, they may not be paying anymore. People like Sirrus and Achnar don't get punishments, they get promotions. I could fully see the devil walking up, putting his arm around Achnar and telling him how much he liked the way he worked.  
  
All of this was the past, of course it could have been present or future given how linking books work, but it was behind me at least. There in the Cleft was safe. That knife in that drawer helt no such sinister purposes anymore than the man who once owned it, my gentle friend Atrus.  
  
Zandi had said , though I hadn't asked him, that there was a lever in the Cleft I'd need to find and pull to get the windmill going. Here again I was in the kitchen investigating one such lever that I suspected to be the one. I pulled and pulled on it but it refused to budge. Maybe it was the wrong one or maybe it was broken. For the time being I still had the other half of the Cleft to search. I crossed the gap and headed back to the first set of rope bridges nearest the ladder at the entrance to the Cleft.  
  
I was standing once more in front of the first rope bridge. This was the same rope bridge that had dumped me into the flowers the first time three days prior. It was staring at me with that evil stare that rope bridges have. You know, the one that stops every adventure hero in his tracks apon encountering one? You can ask any adventure hero about this stare and they will tell you that they only pause for dramatic effect, but really they just deny it because they don't want anyone who's never actually experienced this stare to call them a wuss.  
  
This bridge had already gotten the better of me before and was a bit more smug than most untried bridges. I stared back at it saying cleary lwith my own eyes "you only got me because I wasn't looking." The gap I'd fallen through before was no more than two planks wide. This is very decieving when it comes to rope bridges because they give a little when you jump on them and this can signifigantly shorten the distance of your jump.  
  
I took a deep breath and ran. The bridge answered my footsteps by shaking and swaying, compromising my balance. I refused to fall. I pushed off at the gap and managed to clear the rest of the bridge and land on solid ground. I won that round, but when I looked back at the bridge it didn't look defeated. It hung there still smirking in it's own way as if it knew something. I walked a few steps then I knew what it knew. It wasn't over yet. I knew it.  
  
There before me was the first bridges evil twin. This one had two gaps in it. It couldn't be that hard I'd decided. I'd whipped the last one I could do this too. I ran again and jumped. This time a perfect distance. Too bad for me it was the perfect distance to fall neatly through the second gap and land with a splash in the pool below. Now it was my sneakers that were muddying the pool. I doubt anyone would write a prophecy about that. I'd be lucky if anyone bothered to write fanfiction about it.  
  
Oh great, now my shoes were full of water. Had I been a cat my ears would have been pinned flat against my head. The bridges must have thought the whole thing to be a great joke. They were swaying lightly with their laughter in a breeze that did not exist.  
  
When I was done checking my shoes for goldfish, I went back for round three. The first bridge was no longer an issue and I was quickly facing the second one. I fought to think happy thoughts, or anything in general that had nothing to do with falling, being wet, or the little fountains my shoes made as the water was forced out of the airholes in the top as I'd made my way back to the first bridge. Now if only I had some pixidust...  
  
I ran at it again jumping shorter at first and then pushing off twice as hard in the second jump. I crash landed in a style that would have earned me 10 pts from Launchpad McQuack in the small storage closet on the other side. I looked around the closet. There was very little in there just a few towels and some empty pots one of which I'd accidently turned into a 3D puzzle. In order to spare the room any further damage, and mostly because there was nothing to do in there, I left the pot closet behind me to continue my search.  
  
Comming out of the pot closet to my left was the scaffolding I'd seen earlier. It held up a bucket on which I'd located the fifth handtowel earlier. I really wanted that towel if for no other reason than that it was, at the moment, out of my reach. There next to the scaffolding, practically screaming "stomp on me I like it", was a small wooden footpedal. Far be it from me to ignore the wishes of conveniently placed foot pedals. I stepped on it. There was a sound. It was the sound of silence and a whole lot of nothing happening all at once. I stepped on it again with equally satisfying results. I tappdanced on it. Btw I can't tapdance, so that was a trick in and of itself. Yet again nothing happened.  
  
It didn't look electric, but maybe like that doodad in Atrus' lab it needed power. I'd looked for the switch. I was now at the end of the line. I'd searched what I knew to be every inch of the cleft and still had no idea where the elusive lever was to be found. Right now I was just in the mood to have something work for once.  
  
Another lightbulb came on in my head setting off a few smoke detectors in a neighboring county. I decided to try and climb into the bucket and see if I could reach the handtowel or if maybe my weight might bring it down. Something did happen this time. I climbed half way out onto the scaffolding, lost my balance and ended up in my third bath for the day. Now I had to face it. There was nothing left to do but regroup and find that lever.  
  
I sloshed my way back to the entrance of the cleft. Next to spandex, which I havn't warn in public in years, jeans are the most comfortable thing you can wear out here. That is untill they're soaking wet and you have to do any type of climbing. my current plan was to go back to the windmill and see whereabouts it went into the ground and start my search there. There are actually times in my life when I decide to be logical. I didn't feel like walking all the way to the windmill at the time. I should have realized then that the desert sun might have been a good way to dry my jeans but I didn't. Wet Jeans aside,I could get a better idea what rooms fell beneath the windmill from the top of the Cleft ladder than over by the windmill. From where I stood it looked like it could have been eiher Atrus' lab or the kitchen. In the end my search led me back to that stubborn lever in the kitchen.  
  
Apon closer observation I realized that the mechanism in the kitchen that the lever went with had a shaft that went into the ceiling. I Also noticed that it was a grinder of sorts and if I remembered correctly one of the early functions of a windmill was to grind wheat into flour. I was onto this lever and it couldn't hide any longer. Now how was I going to get it to pull...  
  
I reached out for it again and pulled. It still, as before refused to move. I sighed and brushed some stray strands of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail away from my face. I was rather tempted to shout "Judo Chop!" and have at the lever, but I'd probably just break it and I'd already done enough property damage for one day when I'd crashed Anna's pot closet. I was running out of ideas. Maybe now was the time for some magic words.  
  
"Hocus Pocus!" I pulled- nothing "Abra Cadabera!"I tugged - nothing "Alakazam!"- I yanked- nothing " Aw c'mon pleaaase!?!- it gave  
  
I'm not/wasn't believing this. I'd released the clamps at the top, but nothing seemed to be happening. Maybe nothing only seemed to be happening. I went back to Atrus' lab and pushed the blue button the the doodad. Nothing continued to be happening. I was determined. Maybe it was time to get out and blow.  
  
Fortunately it didn't come to that. The windmill had been fitted with its very own start lever. I gave it a push and it began to spin. I smiled. Things were happening now.  
  
Now, I'm sure alot of people would have run right down to get Yeesha's message. I am not alot of people. I am only one person. One person with a score to settle with an out of reach bucket. The bucket gave me very little trouble. In fact the bucket gave me so little trouble that in my excitement I jumped right down off the platform after it. I'd forgotten , then decided that I I was in too good a mood to care, about the pool that was below me. Once more I'd ended up knee deep in water. I ran over and tagged the towel. Mr Bucket was it! Two fingers remained unlit. Something told me that I probably had more towels to find,but I walked over and touched the hand on the base of the cleft tree since it was there and all. I actually could see the glow this time even though it was faint. Nothing else happened so I decided it was time to go get the Yeesha message from the doodad in Atrus' lab.  
  
I stopped just inside the doorway to Atrus' lab to mess with the blue wallswitch which I had guessed earlier was most likely used to operate the door. Now that we had power I actually got results. I admit they were rather useless results. Who'd want to close an already perfectly open door to a really neat place like this? Still, it was a button and I had to play with it.  
  
The door went down.  
  
The door went up.  
  
The door went down.  
  
The door went up. I love it when things work even when they're pointless.  
  
Oh yeah....Yeesha's message...  
  
I went over to the doodad and hit what I assumed was the play button. A light flickered in the dish at the top, but it didn't seem to be doing much else. Then there was a voice. A very hauntingly beautiful female voice.  
"Shorah," it said. Then it said some other stuff that I didn't understand. I knew it was D'ni having heard the D'ni language once or twice in Riven. I could never in a million years begin to spell what it had said.  
  
I saw a flicker of light from the corner of my eye. I turned and faced the figure who had stepped out from the very place I stood I observerd her as she continued her message. She seemed no taller than me which put her height at about 5 ft 6 in. Her hair was a deeper red than mine, which made sense considering the red in my hair is mostly due to a deliberate use of the wrong strength of Sun- In. Her hair was strangely styled. It appeared to be braided in rows on the side and hanging in dreds towards the back. The transparancy of the hologram prevented me from discerning her eye color. Her outfit....well let's just say that it's comforting to know that occasionally in this world I run into people who have less fashion sense than me.  
  
Lack of fashion sense is a plague amoung creative people. We're always either prancing to the hoofbeats of a different stride, or blessed with the knowledge that there are more wonderful things to contemplate in this world than whether or not our shoes match our purses. That having been said I'm currently experiencing a strange anomoly where my shoes do ,by accident, in fact match my purse. The shirt she wore was half black and half grey with those halves meeting on a diagonal extending from her left shoulder to her right hip. In the black upperfeild there was a white sihlouette of a roadrunner. It probably symbolized that whole desert bird thing from Aitrus' note. She wore a blue necklace with this and grey pants. Draped over her left hip and leg was a black and white striped cloak type half skirt. The entire ensamble was finished off rather neatly with goldenrod yellow and black diamond patterned socks and black boots.  
  
Yeah, I was soooo calling the fashion police. Maybe I'd do better to call the Guild of Fashion Maintainers.(In D'ni the cops are called Maintainers) They can come and arrest us both. Ok ,so they can't come and arrest Yeesha she's just a hologram. They'd just come and arrest me. I know how the trial would go too.  
"Young lady you are being charged with three counts of deliberately unwittingly trespassing in nailpolish that doesn't match your shirt. How do you plead." I'd probably do best to plead insanity. Then I could give them this journal and they'd have to believe me.  
  
Now for the record, I have nothing against Yeesha. She's still a pretty girl even if her outfit doesn't quite flatter her. She was a really pretty baby too. She certainly seems to have turned out better than her brothers. Better for her to seek attention with her clothes than to take the route of greed and destruction that Sirrus and Achnar took.  
  
Her message in it's entirety took me a couple of hours of playback to get it all. This is what she had to say.  
  
Shorah (insert D'ni words I can't spell or understand)  
No, not in D'ni they won't understand.  
Once again the stream in the Cleft has begun to flow.  
It was dry for so long.  
The water is flowing in from the desert.  
The storm is comming.  
Have you heard of the city?  
The deep city?  
The ancient Uru?  
Where there was power to write worlds?  
For thousands of years the city lived, lived beneath the surface,keeper of the secret,  
keeper of the power, keeper of the ages, always keeping.  
The city grew proud and then it died.  
Water flows where it wills.  
It seeks it's own path uncontrolled except that it flows downward, always downward.  
D'ni the city of other worlds died, but now it breaths, it awaits.  
Some will seek that destination, but you should seek the journey.  
It is as a fine tapestry complex beyond comprehension, but now torn.  
We will show you the remnants,peices of the journey.  
Find these journeys.  
Seven  
Seven in each age.  
Seven here in the desert.  
Consider it a quest, no a request. (some other word I didn't quite catch)  
The water flows downward and there it pools and collects, and finally once again it  
reaches the roots and the tree begins to grow again.  
I am Yeesha.  
My parents brought me to this place.  
We will bring you.  
  
So there you have it, everything you never really cared to know about the properties of water. There's more though isn't there? Atrus' note spoke of people flowing in from the desert the way Yeesha speaks of the water flowing in from the desert. The water flows downwards. That is I guess unless you're a Rivenese drop then you flow downward unless someone heats you and then you flow straight up. The seekers of D'ni will follow the same path as the water. Going where they will at first but eventually downward pooling at the base of the tree where that door with the hand symbol on it is. I could follow the water. At least they're not asking me to follow the spiders.  
  
Have I heard of the deep city? That'd be why I'm here. Yeesha said the city grew proud and then it died. Maybe it did ,but in the version I heard it didin't die because of it's own pride. This is the version of the fall of D'ni I heard from the book of Ti'ana. Welcome to Ancient D'ni history in , hopefully, 5 minutes or less. These are the key events leading to the fall of D'ni as best I remember them. Some may be slightly out of order but I'll try my best. BTW, this book is definately worth buying and even though I read somewhere it was out of print, I've still seen it within the last month on the shelf at Books a Million. You can also get copies on E-bay.  
  
D'ni decides to build a tunnel to the surface so they can find out what's up there.  
Aitrus, grandfather of Atrus,of the guild of surveyors helps to build the tunnel.  
Veovis who picked on Aitrus in school grows up some and decides to be friends.  
Veovis and Atrus become best friends and both get selected to be part of the 6 chosen to  
walk onto the surface.  
The tunnel is compleated.  
The D'ni council scratches the surface expedition because they fear invasion from unknown inhabitants.  
The who's who of D'ni have a "were so great we built this tunnel for future generations yea us!" party  
before capping the tunnel and going home.  
An earthquake occurs on the way home.  
Aitrus saves Veovis' life.  
Veovis promises Aitrus anything in his power to grant for saving his life.  
Unknown to the D'ni new access to their capped tunnel is opened by the earthquake via a  
system of caves.  
Anna, the daughter of a recently deceased surveyor wanders into the D'ni tunnel through  
the cavern and is busted by the guild of maintainers.  
D'ni is in an uproar. Rumors of the surface savage fly throughout the city.  
Anna, bored in her cell draws a picture of one of the councilmembers.  
Another councilman seeing the picture sees that Anna is more intellegent than they suspected.  
Anna is turned over to the guild of Linguists and taught D'ni while she awaits her trial.  
Both Veovis and Atrus make D'ni Council.  
Anna, expected by rumor to only be barely capable of grunting her own name, goes to her trial  
speaking fluent D'ni.  
The council decides there's no point in shipping her off to another age but they cannot return her  
to the surface.  
The council puts Anna in the custody of Aitrus' family.  
Aitrus shows her his family's personal age.  
Veovis has a cow.  
D'ni Council rules that Anna is a D'ni citizen and they have no problem with her being in the ages.  
Aitrus takes Anna to spend time with Veovis to try and smooth things over.  
Veovis decides, in spite of his determination to hate her that he actually likes her.  
Veovis warns her that they can get along but she should always remember that D'ni is his pride and  
joy and that he is jealouse of all things D'ni.  
Aitrus teaches Anna to write. They write the age of Gamedet(named after a chess type game they play)  
together.  
Aitrus and anna fall in love.Aitrus nicknames her "Ti'Anna" the D'ni word for storyteller Aitrus proposes.  
Veovis has two cows.  
Aitrus goes before the council for permission to marry Anna.  
Veovis has three cows and forbids it because of his belief that D'ni blood should not mix with anything else.  
Veovis was the last vote needed to approve the marrage so Aitrus called him on his promise to grant  
anything in his power.  
Veovis has four cows, decides he's running out of pasture space, grants Aitrus his wish, but then tells  
him that they are no longer friends.  
Aitrus and Anna continue to gain favor with the council.  
Veovis becomes jealous and bitter and seeks a way to defame Aitrus.  
Veovis' friend Suahrnir introduces him to the "Philosopher" A'Gearis who "knows things" about people.  
A'Gaeris uses Veovis hatred of Ti'Anna and Aitrus to gain his confidence.  
A'Gaeris falsely shows Veovis that Aitrus is dealing in illicit ages.  
A'Gaeris then falsely shows Aitrus that Veovis is not only dealing in illicit ages he's responsible for  
the murder of two missing men from the guild of Maintainers who were investigating his activities.  
Aitrus reaches the council first with the "evidence".  
Veovis is charged with the dealings and the murders of the guildsmen and sentanced to life in prison age.  
A'Gaeris springs Veovis from the prison age.  
Ghen is born.  
Ghen joins the guild of writers at age 4.  
Terrorist attacks start breaking out all over D'ni.  
The Inkworks is bombed.  
Ti'Anna sees Veovis leaving the scene of the crime and follows him.  
A'Gaeris and Veovis make a revenge attempt on Aitrus, but Ti'anna who followed Veovis to their base age  
helps him to escape.  
Veovis is brought to justice once more and nearly sentanced to death.  
Ti'Anna is the only person who will speak in his defence offering the council his journal that explains, in  
conjunction with the notes that were sent to Aitrus before, how Veovis was once a good man and was set up.  
Ti'Anna argued that he should have to pay for the crimes he did commit, but that they might burn the prison  
book instead of beheading Veovis so that he could not escape again to harm anyone else.  
The council agreed with Ti'ana.  
A'Gaeris switched the prison book with another and the wrong one was burned.  
A'Gaeris sprung Veovis again.  
Veovis and A'Gaeris dumped some type of bacteria or virus into the ventilation of D'ni.  
A black cloud of death wafted over the city dealing an agonizing death to anyone who didn't escape to an age.  
When the city was still A'Gaeris and Veovis rounded up the dead bodies and linked them into any  
age they could find making sure that everyone would catch the sickness and all of D'ni would die.  
A'Gaeris' revenge on D'ni for stripping him of his guildmembership for lying and stealing, his purpose  
for using Veovis is compleate.  
Aitrus caught the disease when he buried his father.  
Aitrus used his remaining time to map a way for Ti' Anna and Ghen to reach the surface and survive.  
Aitrus, Ghen and Anna made their attempt to escape to the surface.  
Aitrus hears a scream and runs to help leaving Ti'Anna and Ghen down by the docks to wait for him.  
Aitrus find Veovis bleeding to death of a mortal wound.  
Veovis tells him in his last breaths that A'Gaeris did this to him because he would not write him a world  
where they could be gods.  
Veovis also tells him that he passed over dropping a body into Gamedet because Ti'anna had saved  
his life and because she had seen that there was still good in him even when he himself could not.  
A'Gaeris captured Ti'Anna and Ghen.  
Veovis told Aitrus where they'd be taken and gave him a linking book he'd need to get there ahead of  
A'Gaeris and save his family.  
There was a final standoff where Aitrus told A'Gaeris that he had the age that Veovis was supposed to write  
for him and linked through a book tricking A'Gaeris into following him.  
The book linked into the heart of an active volcano and so both Aitrus and A'Gaeris died.  
Aitrus gave what was left of his life to ensure that Ti'Anna and Ghen would make it to the surface without  
fear that A'Gaeris would come after them.  
Anna built a home for her and Ghen in a cleft that she and her father once used for shelter while they were  
surveying.  
  
Not just any cleft. The Cleft. The one we'd all been called to. Anyhow, enough history, lets get back to seeking the journey. I have found so far 5 remnants. Maybe 6 if the one that seems to have appeared out of nowhere on the wall in Aitrus Lab counts. I can swear that wasn't there before, but maybe I just missed it or tagged it and forgot. I nearly missed my ride back so I hadn't the chance to check and see if that one worked. That would still leave 1 more. 1 more remnant till I was done flowing where I willed and I can join all the other droplets to go through that door at the base of the tree to help the tree to grow. I have no idea where that could possibly be hiding. I could swear I've checked every inch of the desert. Maybe Zandi is sitting on it. That would just be hilarious if he got up and it was stuck to his butt. I don't think it'd make him too happy though if people kept comming up and tagging his butt.  
  
Yeesha was telling me for what must have been about the 50th time about how she was going to "bring me" when I heard a loud noise. No it wasn't the sirens of the Guild of Fashion Maintainers. It was an airhorn. A signal that meant if I didn't beat feet out of there I'd be walking back for the next few days. I ran as quickly as I could catching my group just as they were turning to leave and missing my chance to tag what might be the 6th remnant. The last two remnants nagged me the whole way back. My frustration caused Baariq to nervousely chew on her bit. Where oh where oh where....waaaait. There was one place I hadn't checked. The other side of Aitrus door. It made perfect sense. Maybe those buttons that operated the door weren't so useless afterall. Tomorrow I'd know for sure. 


End file.
